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04/26/2005

Manvel Officer Team Excels at National Show

Maja does not perform your standard round of dog tricks. The Manvel Police Department K-9 recently showed her skill at the tricks she does perform at the National Narcotic Detection Dog Annual Conference in Round Rock, where she took 11th place in the nation.

Maja and Sgt. Carrie Martin competed against 160 other dog and cop teams in detecting the presence of drugs. The conference, which lasted April 4-8, put the teams through their paces. "We had training scenarios all week long," Martin said. "Friday was the competition. We had trainers come from all over the country."

The competition was held in a large gymnasium, with items covering the floor. Teams had three minutes to search out items containing cocaine and marijuana. Points were given for each proper detection, and penalties for a false alarm. "You'd lose 150 points for a false alert," Martin said. "So you couldn't just point out to things all over the place.

Martin and Maja had some stiff competition, but came out with a high ranking. "It came down to seconds between the teams," Martin said. "We were really pleased with the results. She had a good year, I had a good year, and we can't wait for next year."

The two have been teamed up for almost three years now. Maja has been taught to find five types of narcotics that are popular in the area: marijuana, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, heroine and ecstasy. She is called out to traffic stops where drugs are suspected and called out to assist other agencies in detecting narcotics.

Reprinted with permission from Garrett Bryce, Staff Writer for The Alvin Adertiser

Copyright 2005 Manvel Police Department. All rights reserved.